Today I want to tell you guys something about myself, and how my life has changed in the last two years.

Two years ago, I was completely entangled in alcoholism and drug addiction. For a long time I lived a life of sickness and destruction. In that time my weight dropped to 99 pounds. But one day things changed and I decided to come to this amazing city where I entered a rehabilitation center for people with problems like mine. Today as I write it has been almost three years that I have been at that place, and can say that I have completely recovered from my problems with drugs and alcohol. I can tell you that my health has improved totally, at the moment I weigh 135 pounds. I have been going to the Day Worker Center for 5 months. And at this place I have learned things that before I didn’t know I was able to do. For example–this blog, CPR classes, first aid, computer skills, and English as a second language. Things that before I didn’t know how to do I can now work on and put into practice.

Anyways, I think that’s it for today, I hope you could see how through strength of character a man was able to overcome his obstacles.

What we do is pick up trash from the streets. We do this in order to keep our streets cleans, with people from the community, students from different schools in the area, and dayworkers from the dayworker center. But that day we had a situation that is worth commenting on.

This is what happened. When we arrived at 113 Escuela Ave, we were met with opposition by several people from the area. They thought that we were going to disturb the peace. They thought we were going to throw trash, that we’d make a racket, drink alcohol, and many other things. But they were mistaken, and this changed this opinions of residents in the area.

This is what happened. Maria was in the office when a woman came into the center. When she saw Maria, she gave her a hug and thanked her for the work that the men and women of the dayworker center were doing out on the streets. And the following is important! The woman told Maria that she had been one of the people who had opposed the dayworker center being close to her home. But when she saw what we were doing, she changed her mind about us.

Sometimes we talk for the sake of talking and we don’t think that our words can hurt someone. Let’s search for harmony together to make a better world.

The past several days have been bad for many of the workers at the center, since it has been raining a lot and employers don’t come to hire us. You can see the worry on many of our faces as we wait to work, since the day rent is due and many other things get closer. We hope that next week things will be better. But like they say, after a storm comes a calm. Something special about us Latin@s is that although things get bad, we always have the view that they will get better. Our hope of going on doesn’t end, happen what may happen, we see the future with good opportunities for improvement.